1. Field of the Application
The application generally relates to an input device, and more particularly, to a touch panel and a handheld electronic device using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, the digital information and wireless mobile communication technologies have been developing quickly. Many digital electronic products, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), have abandoned the conventional keyboards and mouses and adopt touch panels as their input devices, so as to achieve high portability, small volume, and operation humanization.
Touch panels can be categorized into resistive touch panels, capacitive touch panels, optical touch panels, acoustic wave touch panels, and electromagnetic touch panels according to the adopted sensing techniques. Among aforementioned touch panels, resistive and capacitive touch panels are the most popular ones. In a capacitive touch panel, one or more layers of conductive films with transparent electrode patterns are adhered to a substrate to form a touch sensor. A user can operate on the capacitive touch panel by simply touching the surface thereof. Thereby, capacitive touch panels offer such advantages as short response time, high reliability, and high durability.
FIG. 1 is a side view of a conventional touch panel. Referring to FIG. 1, an adhesive layer 120 (for example, an optical clear adhesive (OCA)) is coated on a sensor 110 formed by one or more layers of conductive films with transparent electrode patterns. A conductive layer 130 (for example, an anisotropic conductive film (ACF)) is coated over the edge of the sensor 110 to attach one side of a flexible printed circuit (FPC) 140 to the edge of the sensor 110, so as to electrically connect conductive lines on the FPC 140 to the transparent electrode patterns on the sensor 110. Eventually, a transparent cover 150 is attached onto the sensor 110 through the adhesive layer 120 to form the touch panel 100. However, as shown in FIG. 1, in the touch panel 100, the FPC 140 needs to be attached to the edge of the sensor 110. Thus, the touch panel 100 is manufactured through a complicated process with high cost, and the problem of uneven adhesion may be produced therein.